Accountability day: faulty cabinet accounting causes headaches | Inland

According to the Court of Audit, almost 5 percent of the obligations, future expenditure to which the government has committed itself, is ‘unlawful’. It is well above the Court’s 1 percent tolerance limit. He therefore speaks of a ‘worrying’ conclusion on Accountability Day, when the financial administration of the government from the previous year is always scrutinized.

“The entire government will really have to get to work on this,” said Minister Kaag (Finance) in an initial response. But she also asks for patience: “It is complex and cannot be arranged overnight.” She also points out that the billions in corona money were not just spent: “We have spent a lot extra, but also received a lot in return.”

This concerns a total of EUR 15.5 billion in commitments that the Court of Auditors cannot verify will end up in the right place, plus EUR 3.3 billion in money already spent. It is considerably more than in 2020, when the figures were certainly not in order due to corona. The auditor considers expenditure and obligations to be unlawful if, for example, parliament was not informed in time about the expenditure, or if the tender was not conducted in accordance with the rules.

Corona crisis causes administrative chaos

According to the Court of Audit, it is mainly the corona crisis that causes the administrative chaos. The Ministry of Health is therefore one of the biggest culprits, where more than 6 billion euros is not properly justified. At the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, things also went very wrong with regard to the Fixed Charges Allowance (TVL), a compensation that entrepreneurs received during corona time as compensation for their fixed costs. The Court of Audit even objected to the ministry’s budget, because more than 13 billion euros had not been properly justified. After some repair work, the signal went green.

The Ministry of Defense (errors in tenders) and the Ministry of Finance (no legal basis for compensation allowance affair) are also severely beaten by the Court of Audit. In total, the 1 percent error threshold was exceeded in 10 of the 23 budgets.

‘No excuses’

According to the Court of Audit, the pandemic is no excuse, because the government’s financial management has not been in order for some time. The corona crisis has exposed ‘structural weaknesses in central government’s business operations’. So the conclusion is: ‘The Court of Audit considers it necessary for the cabinet to get this in order to prevent a recurrence. Specific knowledge and skills must be available to employees, especially when it matters.”

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